FA to recruit and retain 1,000 new referees from diverse backgrounds in next three years

Football Association to unveil plans to recruit and retain 1,000 referees from under-represented backgrounds over next three years as part of landmark diversity strategy for refereeing; plans supported across football with long-term hope that elite pathway will also become more diverse

By Rob Dorsett and Dev Trehan

Wednesday 26 July 2023 10:57, UK

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The FA will unveil ambitious new plans to recruit and retain 1,000 new referees from diverse backgrounds in the next three years, Sky Sports News can exclusively reveal, in the hope of drastically changing the culture of grassroots football.

The landmark new FA strategy will be launched tomorrow, with the aim of encouraging more people from under-represented communities to consider getting involved in football, and refereeing.

Whilst the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL) organises referees and assistants at the elite level, it is nonetheless supportive of this new FA initiative, in the hope that more black and South Asian referees will make it into the professional game in future.

Sam Allison is currently the highest-ranked black referee in the professional game, working in the EFL. Helinked up with the highest-ranked referee from Britain's South Asian community, Sunny Singh Gill, to preside over Swindon Town's Easter Monday clash with Leyton Orient towards the end of the 2021/22 season.

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Sunny's father, Jarnail Singh, is the first turbaned Sikh referee in the history of English league football and took charge of more than 150 games across the divisions between 2004 and 2010.

Speaking exclusively to Sky Sports News in April 2021, former World Cup